On board charger

I’m thinking of installing an on board charger to charge both cranking and trolling motor batteries at once. Just a 12v trolling motor on a Tracker 16v and a regular cranking battery. What do y’all recommend ?

Minn Kota

I’ve been looking at the Minn Kota 10 amp as well as the NOCO Genius M2 8 amp. Both are two bank chargers, but the Minn Kota is almost twice the price. Both get good reviews. Does anyone have experience with the Genius ? Thanks !

I've had and used NOCO for the past 15 years, stays plugged in and never a failure.

I used a ProMar 5/5 the first 3 years. Then it quit. Bought a budddie's Guest 4/4. And it quit before I even got the boat on the water (2 months). He had replaced it with one that had more banks for more electronics. So I bought it. Now, I have a MK 220PC two bank. I set one bank up for an AGM (D/P starting and electronics). The other is for a wet cell (deep cycle 105AH trolling) that will need replacing soon. The charger was expensive. But you can custom set each bank pending the type of battery you are running. Hope I don't have to replace it anytime soon!

ProMariner

I have a NOCO Gen3 3 bank on mine for a year now.

It stays plugged in all the time that I am not on the water.

I have a 5 year old Genius 3 bank charger (10A per bank) that has never missed a beat. As another said, stays plugged in all the time.

Drycreek 3189, you're looking at the wrong product for what I believe you need, however. That mini 2 bank charger, at max 4A per bank, is insufficient to meet the charging specs of some marine batteries, especially AGM cell technology. A more appropriate NOCO model would be GEN2 2-Bank 20A On-Board Battery Charger. There's a reason that mini is less expensive as you're not comparing apples fairly.

9

After looking at the charger again, I can see that you’re right. My TM is just a 12v, and one battery, so I was thinking an all night charge would have me fully charged the next day. I’ll have to do some more looking. Thanks !

Do you also have an outboard with a starting battery? Or, is this a boat with only one battery and a trolling motor? If you have two batteries in the boat, you should get a 2 bank charger so that you make sure both are fully charged. The outboard may not always run enough to keep the starting battery fully charged. If you truly have just one battery, I have a different suggestion.. Let me know.

https://www.amazon.com/Dual-Pro-Bank-Professional-Charger/dp/B0000TEWZA

I have two batteries, hence the search for a two bank charger. One battery for the TM and another to crank. I believe you read my first post wrong though, the NOCO I was looking at was an 8 amp, not a 4 amp. I do have conventional chargers that I can use in a pinch but Id rather have the convenience of jus5 plugging in each time I park.

Thanks for everyone’s input !

This is the point where you have embarrassed yourself on this matter, and you don't even realize it. You looked at the NOCO charger wrong. A stunt of sorts that many charger companies do is list the charger as "X" amp where "X" is all of the banks added together. Go look closely at that NOCO charger and you will see that it is clearly a 4A + 4A two bank charger, resulting in being labeled "8 Amp". A battery doesn't have any concern for total amps in a charger; rather, PER BANK is all that matters to each battery. You're looking at 4A whether you think so or not, and that's not enough to do it right. Most batteries have specifications for charging, but those facts aren't always readily available. The specs insure that a charger can get a big battery to "get in gear and start charging". They need a good strong kick to make it start charging. A common spec I see is that the minimum amps of a charger should be at least 10% of the Amp-Hour rating for best service and life of a battery. So, for an 80 AH battery, 10% would be 8 Amps FOR EACH BATTERY. Notice that charger that T-Bird posted? FIFTEEN AMPS per bank. That's a premier charger. You don't necessarily have to have that one, but 4 isn't gonna get it. NOCO is fine, just not NOCO 4A per bank.

You think you know all about it, so go right ahead; you can do what you want, obviously. I'm trying to tell you what's wrong with your idea because you don't have all the related facts, requirements, or technical knowledge.. You'll likely end up with less service life from batteries by going low on the charger. Does that really save in the long run?

Flippin, I can’t see how I made it all these years without your help. I am humbled by your knowledge. Please forgive my ignorance as I’m not worthy of your advice. Your intelligence is only exceeded by YOUR EGO !

I hope you have plenty of money - to do things over and over because you might need a sign. I hope you have lots of money to fix your missteps along the way.

I see that after you chastised me, you did NOT bother to say anything about how many amps that charger has per bank did you? Weren't you adamant that I was wrong about the charger? You'll get what you give here.

So long, last time you'll hear from me. Good news for you I guess.

Ive got a new two bank Ill sell you at a discount its 6 amp PER bank.

pm me

100 shipped.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Pro-RS2-Battery-Charger-2-Bank-12-Amps/302495804048?epid=691186260&hash=item466e27aa90:g:CXAAAOSwsddegtm5